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FOREWORD 


The author of this pamphlet, as secretary of 
the American Board for the Near East and 
Africa, has just completed a secretarial tour 
throughout the mission fields of the Board in 
Africa: He landed on May 11, 1924; at Beirag 
visited Johannesburg, Lorenzo Marques, and 
Inhambane of Portuguese East Africa; studied 
the work of the Zulu Branch in the South 
African Mission in Natal; investigated the 
Board’s work in Rhodesia; and looked over the 
so-called Beira field in Portuguese East Africa. 
He then visited the West Africa field, which is 
in Angola under the control of the Portuguese 
Government. He arrived home in December, 
1924. | 

Secretary Riggs’ general impressions of the 
Bantu race are given here, and some of his 


findings also. 
EER. 


Entered as second class mail matter at the Post Office at Boston, Mass. Accept- 
ance for mailing at special rates of postage provided for in section 1104, Act of 
October 3, 1917, authorized on June 21, 1918. The American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions, 14 Beacon St., Boston, Mass. Printed in U. S. A 
Annual subscription, ten (10) cents. 


What of the Bantus? 


By Ernest W. Reade 


Some Snap Judgments 


Snap One. “The nigger is more like a human than 

any other animal.” This was the remark 
of an agent of Henry Ford who had been traveling in 
Africa for a number of years. In his business the 
black native was not interested except as the roads 
built for the use of the Ford car extend the white 
man’s domination. These roads are built by black 




















Typical Road Gang in Angola 
The able bodied men have been taken for more permanent employment so the 
mending of the road is mostly done by boys of 8-15. 


3 


men, women and children, working without pay. If 
the natives are fortunate enough to own a yoke of 
oxen and a cart they must avoid these roads lest they 
make them unfit for the rubber tired pleasure vehicles 
of the white man. To this agent of Henry Ford the 
Bantu was hardly more than vermin,—usually a 
nuisance to be put out of the way, but more useful 
than some other animals. 

This is a point of view which some like to take with 
regard to the Bantus. It seems incredible that any 
man who has had any contact with these people can 
really persuade himself that they are nearer the dumb 
animals in intelligence and moral responsibility than 
they are to the white man who uses them. At the 
same time, for many who find their only source of in- 
come through the abuse of the native it is impossible 
to square their actions with what remains of a con- 
science unless they assume the position that the black 
man who slaves for them is no more than an animal. 

Of all the native races in Africa the Bantus are 
perhaps the most important. Many branches of this 
race with differing but kindred tongues are to be found 
from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and it is among 
these tribes of Bantus that the work of the American 
Board is conducted. | 

Mr. Agent might have revised his opinion of the 
Bantu if he had been with us on a launch trip from 
Beira to the mouth of the Sabi River. A storm swept 
up from the Indian Ocean and the little forty foot boat 
was tossed about alarmingly. As the waves increased 
in size and the wind in violence we realized keenly that 
we were utterly at the mercy of a black native crew. 
But the captain knew well the tides and the winds and 
guided us safely behind the Island of Chiluane. The 
native at the engine knew exactly how to handle that 
beautiful piece of English machinery and we were as 


4 


safe as we could have been with trained sailors of any 
race. 

While we were stopping at the Island of Chiluane I 
made inquiries regarding the relatives of a Bantu 
friend of mine, a young man born in a heathen kraal 
not far from the Island. I tried to find his mother 
who still digs over her little patch of ground for two or 
three seasons and then moves on to another patch, 
planting mealies while the soil is new, and never stor- 
ing up more than enough to last her through the dry 
season. The opinion of Mr. Agent might have re- 
ceived another jolt had he met the son of this mother. 
Beginning his education in a mission school this Bantu 
boy has received his B.S. degree at Columbia Uni- 
versity and is now studying the Portuguese language 
in Lisbon preparatory to returning to help his own 
people. He still longs to see his mother though fifty 
centuries of civilization lie between them. 

Perhaps Mr. Agent would have had another surprise 
if he could have comprehended Abrahama, who was 
engaged as the master mason in building an important 
bridge over which the Ford cars might hope to travel. 
For four months he had directed a gang of men in this 
work successfully, and expected to be busy at this 
task for one month more, and after he had completed 
it Mr. Agent and his civilized white friends would pay 
him nothing but tell him he was through and could go 
and work for himself awhile. Last year Abrahama 
built another bridge which took six months out of his 
year and for which he received no remuneration. But 
Abrahama is a Christian as well as a mason, one of the 
first Christians of his tribe. His chief ambition is to 
build Christian character among his workers, a char- 
acter far finer than that of Mr. Agent, while he humbly 
directs those who with him are subservient to the 
white man. 


‘s0zenba 942 JO YyINos jysvod 3ysam 943 UO IOd JuUeIJOdUI 
WOU sIy} Ul pedtd Aue jo sayveid A[UO 24} SI ‘WstuayIeeY JO INO sieak May ke ATUO ‘npunquiiyo9Q ue ‘assof 


O[QOT 2 Spuvgy ay} UO UO1ZDSILSUOT) IY J 

















Mr. Agent would utterly fail to appreciate the sig- 
nificance of the work in Lobito where Jesse, only a 
few years out of heathenism, is conducting services. 
Lobito is an important town on the west coast of 
Africa, the terminus of the Benguela Railway, which, 
when it is completed will be one of the most important 
highways of Africa. But in this bustling modern town 
on the finest harbor of the coast there is not a church, 
mosque or synagogue for the civilized white people. 
Jesse, however, was sent down here by the church at 
Bailundo 250 miles away because there were Christian 
black men in Lobito who were losing faith and char- 
acter amid the temptations forced upon them by con- 
ditions in the port. He had tactfully become ac- 
quainted with the head of Pawlings and Company and 
was allowed a room in one of the Company shacks and 
was given work on the docks. On Sundays and oc- 
casionally through the week he gathers together quite 
a group of earnest listeners including these Christian 
boys who come from Christian communities in the in- 
terior Unerew riont  byathe rollings ‘ocean, 1 met .d 
congregation of a hundred on Sunday morning. 
Seated on the sand under a tropical sun, they sang 
happily the hymns they had learned in their own 
church homes and offered earnest prayers not so much 
for themselves as for their brethren in darkness, and 
for the missionaries who were giving them the Gospel. 


Snap Two. A point of view somewhat different from 
that of Mr. Ford Agent and quite com- 

mon in South Africa emerged on a steamer plying be- 
tween Portuguese East Africa and Natal. A group of 

* missionaries were seated in the dining saloon at their 
first meal when a gentleman who described himself as 
a white agent in a native reserve gave forth his dictum 
as to the Zulus, who are among the most advanced of 


7 


the Bantu peoples. He was speaking earnestly to one 
of his companions from his long experience with the 
natives, and said: “The Zulu in his natural state is the 
most moral person in the world, but as soon as you 
Christianize him he takes on all the vices and none of 
the virtues of civilization.’ With some vehemence he 
elaborated this statement, speaking of the evil that was 
being done to the natives by the missionaries. “Keep 
the nigger in, his place” is as often heard in Africa as 
it is nearer home. But our Traveler had failed to re- 
member that the “natural state’ of the Zulus has been 
effectually ended by civilized agents of the white man 
in Africa like himself. In their natural state the Zulus 
were a predatory race, mercilessly slaying their ent- 
mies and roaming over the vast areas of South Eastern 
Africa. Now they are strictly shut up in reserves or 
carefully watched as they work for the white man un- 
der conditions far worse physically and morally for 
themselves than the primitive state to which Mr. 
iraveler reterred: 

We cannot forget that for probably six centuries the 
worst of Mohammedanism with its slave raiding and 
the worst of Christianity with its demands for labor 
have been making a far greater impression upon the 
Zulu than all the missionaries that have been sent to 
Africa in the last one hundred years. The white men 
who have braved the inhospitable climate of this trop- 
ical region do not bring white laborers from Europe; 
they come to be the masters of thousands of native 
laborers and to treat them as they will with little pub- 
licity to fear and still less force of law to control their 
dealings with the native. 

Doubtless Mr. Traveler had not thought over the 
relation between the primitive state of the native and 
his present degeneration as it is evidenced upon the 
Gold Reef at Johannesburg. Here, carried down 


8 


sometimes a mile below the surface of the ground, in 
cold and damp, and sometimes forced to breathe for 
long hours the dust and chemical fumes of the process 
of extracting the gold, 200,000 natives are having their 
first taste of civilization. The white man has not per- 
mitted them to stay in their natural state and has 
built up for them an environment which though great- 
ly improved over what it was a few years ago is still 
far from wholesome. 

I witnessed a native dance in one of the mine com- 
pounds where these laborers live. Here with weird 
music and wonderful rhythm the natives themselves 
were trying to break in upon the monotony of their 
idleness on a Sunday afternoon. From the strange 
performances of the dancers my eyes turned to the 
hardened faces of a large number of women in the 
crowd which was enjoying the spectacle. These were 
the temporary wives and prostitutes who live in open 
shame among the workers and constitute the answer 
of a heartless civilization to the social needs of this 
great gathering of men. 

From this dance we went to another compound 
where an equally large audience of (2,500) men were 
gathered in reverent silence to witness the motion pic- 
ture of the life of Christ entitled “From the Manger 
to the Cross.” As the beautiful pictures followed each 
other upon the screen Dr. Bridgman told the story in 
Zulu and it was quickly caught up and translated into 
Susutu by an assistant so that the majority of that 
great audience received the Gospel message by eye 
and ear. This is the answer which is being given by 
the representatives of the American Board, Mr. Har- 
wood B. Catlin, Mr. Ray E. Phillips and Dr. Frederick 
B. Bridgman, to the social problem created by this 
restless mass of heathen men. The mine owners, ap- 
preciating the value of this moving picture program, 


§ 


*punol3s 3 
yO st OOF AIA YY} BION ‘UOIsIaId aynpOsqe YYW poejndexsa sil Yt PyIMm pue PJIOM st JUSWIIAOUT Sa acsnone 


punodwmoy) aurpy singsauuvnyof wu a2uvg 9a1qD NN 














are meeting its full expense, putting into the enter- 
prise something like $20,000 a year. Whatever ef- 
forts for bettering the conditions of the Bantu have 
been made, whether on the plantations or in the mines, 
in the big cities or on the reserves, have either been 
initiated by the missionary or have secured his early 
and hearty cooperation. 


Snap Three. The policeman with whom I happened 

to ride for a few hundred miles on one 
of the splendid railroads of the Union of South Africa 
expressed his view of the matter with far more con- 
vincing logic than was found in the excited utterances 
of Mr. Traveler. This policeman with twenty-five 
years of experience among the natives was weary with 
his task and was going home to England. He said 
somewhat sadly “You can’t hope to civilize the nig- 
ger. He absorbs all the vices and none of the virtues 
of the white man.” When my fighting blood began to 
rise at this familiar remark he explained, again rather 
lugubriously, “You see the white man always shows 
him his worst side and the nigger is a good imitator. 
I don’t refer to the missionaries; they of course are 
different, but they can’t overcome the terrible influence 
of the ordinary white man.” As the conversation in 
the compartment continued the policeman found an 1l- 
lustration of his remark in the story told by the young 
fellow who had just come from Victoria Falls. He ex- 
hibited to us a handsomely carved native cane and said 
that the owner was quite unwilling to part with it be- 
cause of its tribal significance. He explained that he 
had got into his automobile, taken the cane with him, 
held out a sixpence to the man and started the engine, 
and then with a grin of satisfaction he said “It didn’t 
take him long to decide to sell his cane for a sixpence.” 


DI 


I was reminded of a similar incident which took 
place while I was riding on the train through Bechu- 
analand. The natives crowded about the train at the 
stations to sell little curios. One little boy had with 
him a number of tiny chairs made of porcupine quills 
which he was offering at sixpence each. Finally un- 
der protest he sold one for threepence. One of my 
companions, taking another one in his hand, told the 
boy he would give him a penny for it. The native boy 
refused indignantly, but the man on the train had the 
advantage and waited until the train started, holding 
out all the while the penny. After the native boy had 
run along the side of the moving train protesting the 
injustice of it for some seconds he grabbed the penny 
and with it learned a great big lesson in morals from. 
the white man. 





Heathen Chiefs of the Ovimbundu Tribe 


Though heathen they eagerly welcome the missionary activities among their 
people. 


I2 


Better Bantus 


As a contrast it will be interesting to note some evi- 
dences of the influence of the missionary upon a whole 
tribe in West Africa. The chief engineer of the rolling 
stock on the Benguela Railway was remarking on the 
freight being handled at the port of Lobito. He said 
“Do you know that 20,000 tons of mealies and beans 
are being raised and sold for export to Portugal and 
the islands by the Ovimbundu in the region of Bail- 
undo?” It was interesting to learn from the mission- 
aries that this grain was raised among villages where 
missionary work has been going on for forty years. 
In no other part of Angola has such a record for thrift 
and hard work been made by the native people. 

















Chief Chisendi and His “Palace” 


This man rules 30,000 people. Boy with the big knife at right was digging 
jiggers from the chief’s toes as we arrived. 


13 


The explanation of this influence of the missionary 
upon the productivity of the native is evidenced by a 
visit to two villages, one heathen and one Christian. 
With Mr. J. A. Steed I called on Chief Chisendi, whose 
village is near Chisamba. He is very old and near his 
end. Seated on a mat in front of his royal palace he 
was having a boy remove the jiggers from his toes 
with a butcher knife and a safety pin. The aforesaid 
palace was a one-room hut with cryptic signs of the 
witch doctor painted on the door. It was surrounded 
by a number of other huts for his twelve wives and 
thirty children. He had had twenty more, but these 
had “gone to the’spirit of. the earth” as he expressed 
it. Though this man was the head of 30,000 people 
everything was filth and squalor. After much per- 
suasion he had been gracious enough to grant permis- 
sion for a school in this his fortified capitol village. So 
after paying him our respects we went to see the 
school. 

The teacher, a young lad just four months out of 
Currie Institute at Dondi, took us to the “Onjango” 
or palaver house of the chief where he was hoiding 
school till the building which he was erecting with 
the help of the people, outside the village, could be 
completed. There were gathered a most unpromising 
looking group of fifteen unclothed boys and girls of 
varying ages. Behind them hung 250 jaw bones, black 
with smoke and age. Each bone was a sort of receipt 
or royal certificate to the fact that a case had been 
tried before the chief and settled, and the beast of 
sacrifice had been duly offered. In such an unpromis- 
ing environment this boy had accomplished wonders 
in four months. His pupils knew forty hymns from 
the hymn book, and they sang us samples. They sang 
the Portuguese National Anthem; they repeated the 
Lord’s Prayer in Portuguese and also knew it in Um- 


14 

















Photo by E. W. Wright 
Teacher from Dondi, W. C. A., and his school at Chisendi 


bundu; they recited the Ist and 23rd Psalms in their 
native tongue; they counted to one hundred in Portu- 
guese; and all this in addition to their primary task of 
learning the Portuguese syllables which some of them 
showed they knew thoroughly. 

Compare with this the village of Onjamba, where 
there are eighty houses, each one a Christian home. 
Here the streets are laid out straight with walled gar- 
dens on each side and three or four room houses set in 
each garden. An irrigation ditch supplies the gardens 
with water and there is every appearance of a keen ef- 
fort towards cleanliness and thrift. The people have 
built a house where the missionary may rest, which 
may also be used by the Portuguese official when he 
comes to write up the taxes. Far out on the road, be- 
fore we reached the village, a watcher sounded a horn 


1 See 


to give word of our coming, and when the auto ap- . 
proached the village, crowds of happy boys and girls 
threw handfuls of leaves into the air as confetti might 
be thrown at home, and shouted their welcome to the 
visitors. And here the church and school are the very 
heart of the community. This is only a few years’ re- 
move from the crude beginning at Chisend1. 

A new spirit of ambition to have things better, to 
prepare a better environment for the next generation, 
seems to have seized these people as they have accepted 
Christianity. JI remember riding, unexpected, into the 
village of Kaputu and seeing the fine new church in 
process of erection. The people had begun this task 
without the knowledge of the missionary, in their 
spare time hewing the beams from the forest and 
moulding the adobe bricks with willing hands. They 
were eager that their children should have a finer 
church than the small hut in which they had been 
worshipping as the center of their village life. 


Importance of the Problem of the Races 


Significant statements appear in two mission study 
text books recently issued for use in America. The 
opening sentence of the foreword in “Adventures in 
Brotherhood” by Dorothy Giles reads as follows: “Of 
all the issues at stake today the most pressing by far is 
that of the inter-relation of races.” The opening sen- 
tence of the first chapter in Robert Speer’s book “Of 
One Blood” reads: “The questions of race and race re- 
lationships are the most insistent questions of the mod- 
ern world.” If the race problem is one of foremost 
importance in America it is vastly more important in 
Africa. Under the direction of decent government the 


16 


Bantus are increasing with astonishing rapidity. With 
their increase in numbers is a corresponding increase 
in influence so that a business man in Cape Town re- 
marked to me that he felt the time was coming when 
he must move out. “This is going to be a black man’s 
country,” said he; “the oncoming tide is irresistible.” 

It was decidedly illuminating to find that the gov- 
ernment is extremely eager to sound the point of view 
of the native on these questions of race relationship. 
A few years ago there was initiated in Johannesburg 
a movement to bring together the ablest representa- 
tives of the native population to meet in joint council 
with those among the whites who were the best think- 
ers on the subject of race relations. This joint coun- 
cil has steadily grown in importance and the plan has 
been duplicated in a number of other cities of South 
Africa. The council meets at stated intervals and be- 
fore it are brought questions of moment bearing upon 
the developing race consciousness of the black and 
the methods adopted by the white rulers of the country 
to direct his activities. At such a meeting which I at- 
tended in Johannesburg there were present perhaps 
not over thirty individuals and yet almost every phase 
of Johannesburg’s industrial, religious and social life 
was represented. As representing the government Dr. 
Loram of the Native Affairs Department was present 
to answer questions. He was placed on the defensive 
by the black members of the Council but bore no ill 
will towards them because of their searching ques- 
tions. He frankly stated that the government was 
eager to secure the reaction of the joint council upon 
every piece of legislation which bore upon the relation 
between the races. Thus does the government earnest- 
ly seek the unofficial but powerful public opinion of 
large-minded men of whatever color. 


17 


Cooperation with the Government 


The American Board has, since its first entry into 
South Africa, ably cooperated with the government in 
its efforts to provide for the native peoples. When the 
plan of delimiting reserves for the Zulus was adopted 
by the government twelve out of eighteen of these re- 
serves were assigned to the American Board. This 
was done with the expectation that the representative 
of that Board on the reserve would be to the people 
there collected both father and chief. Little by little 
as the way was pointed out by the missionaries the 
government has taken over the control of the natives 
upon the reserves. First they assumed the duties of 
collecting the taxes previously collected by the mis- 
sionary. hen when these taxes were raised beyond 
the ability of the people to pay, it was the missionary 
who stepped in and secured a reduction in the tax. Of 
the money thus raised even today the South African 
government passes over one-half to the missionaries 
for them to administer according to their best judg- 
ment in the interests of the natives. A large propor- 
tion of the other half is also used for promoting edu- 
cation under the supervision of the missionaries. 

Jt was striking to see at Umtwalumi the native Chris- 
tian chief. He was an elder in the church and at the 
same time he was the ruler of his people. He was re- 
sponsible to the government as his administrative head 
but he felt himself responsible to the missionary as to 
his spiritual father. A striking contrast to this Christian 
chief is the heathen chief whose life is full of debauch- 
ery and who subjects himself and his people to the 
wicked practices of the witch doctor. Under the di- 
rection of the missionaries each one of these native re- 
serves in Natal has become a center of Christianity. 
Although the people have not all become Christian yet 


18 





So S 





ge: Pe ¥ 
. ue 

















Zulu Pastors at Umtwalume 


they have all deeply felt the influence of Christianity 
and the government has been benefited in the peace 
and prosperity which has developed in this atmos- 
phere. 


I was privileged to be present at the opening of a 
new church building’ on one of the reserves. The 
chief had provided food for the company, oxen had 
been slaughtered, bags of beans, corn and rice were in 
readiness for the big and little kettles which the wor- 
shippers were bringing. Even the white planters so 
recognized the uplifting power of the church and 
school among the tillers of their fields that a number 
of them came with their families to take part in this 
dedication. 


19 


Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, head of the Education 
Commission to Africa sent out by the Phelps Stokes 
Foundation, pays high tribute to the help which the 
missionaries are rendering in the field of education. 
He refers to the fact that ninety per cent of the schools 
for natives in British, French, Belgian and Portu- 
geuese colonies in Africa are carried on not directly by 
the government but by the missionaries. Progressive- 
ly the recommendations made by this most important 
Commission are being followed out by the missionary 
societies. Emphasis is being laid upon preparing the 
native to live better in his own native environment 
rather than to desert that environment for a new one 
in subservience to the white man. 

Specific mention should be made of the part played 
by the missionaries in the education of the children in 
Natal. Thousands of pupils are gathered into the 
schools supported by the taxes of the people. These 
taxes collected by the government and administered 
by the missionary have secured for the natives the 
best of training for their rural life. I have nowhere 
seen a more complete exhibit of industrial work done 
by pupils than in the school at Infume. Here on long 
tables in a well lighted class room were samples of 
woodcarving, basketry, pottery, embroidery, sewing, 
cooking and garden produce. The whole exhibit was 
arranged to show the practical training given to little 
hands and eyes for the life of hard toil which was be- 
fore them in the midst of most primitive surroundings. 
All of this excellent training was in the hands of na- 
tive teachers. It was interesting to note in the gov- 
ernment curriculum that as much time is given to the 
study of the Bible as to any one other subject. 

This is but an illustration of the way the missionary 
has cooperated with the government in Africa. The 
secret of the success of the American Board’s work in 


20 


Angola during the past four years lies in the willing- 
ness of the missionaries to lay hold upon the best that 
there is in the plans of the government and translate 
it into serviceable methods for developing the people. 
In the midst of acute problems of labor it has only 
been the understanding sympathy of the missionary 
that has held at the same time the respect of govern- 
ing officials and the devotion of a misunderstood and 
suffering people. The Portuguese government has 
been bitterly criticized for its dealings with the natives 
in Angola and Mozambique. Conditions have been 
made extremely difficult for the Bantus. At the same 
time, remembering the enormous size of these colonies, 
some twenty-two times the area of the mother country, 
and remembering that for generations these colonies 
were considered little more than prison camps for 
Portuguese criminals, we can sense the difficulties 
which even the most conscientious official must meet 
as he tries to work out the problem of administration. 
I was deeply impressed with the parting words of a 
high-minded and well educated young Portuguese 
teacher in Angola. He said to me “As you go back to 
America and tell the story of the native, do not forget 
the weighty problem which we Portuguese have to 
face. The wheels of government have sunk into a rut 
and there is no one to lift them out.” 


Fitting the Native for His New Environment 


Perhaps no change brought into the life of the native 
by an advancing civilization has been so difficult for 
him to understand as the restriction of his land. The 
primitive African never owned land. All Africa was 
his. He was free to wander where he would, to build 
his hut by any stream or upon any hill, to dig his gar- 
den where the soil was most rich, using up its richness 


21 


and then passing on to some other location. With the 
ideas of personal property which came in as the coun- 
try was settled he was totally unfamiliar. Restricted 
in his migratory rights he found it difficult to wrest 
from the*earth his living, ~[o be suresreservesanad 
been set aside for the natives both in Portuguese and 
British territory but these reserves were by no means 
adequate to provide for the wandering life to which 
the people were accustomed. Thus, to the Bantu the 
restriction of his land is his greatest grievance. The 





Boy returning from “Joni? (Johannesburg) with his new outfit. 
(Hired carrier) 


22 


missionary, however, is not so much concerned with 
the extent of the land assigned to the native as with 
the question of how he can be taught the intensive 
cultivation of the soil he tills. Not only the tilling of 
the soil must be taught but the construction of a per- 
manent home adapted to the climate and which will 
stand the ravages of insects. But both the training in 
agriculture and the training in building are subservient 
to the aim of leading the native to the great steadying 
bower inealletheschanees: ofcitcumstance.. The?re- 
lation between church and school and the adaptation 
of the people to settled living becomes immediately 
evident as soon as it is stated. 

Since it is extremely difficult to teach the mature Af- 
rican new ways of living, the missionaries of the Board 
have made especial efforts to train the children. In 
this training a most important element is to dissociate 
‘in the mind of the child the natural phenomena of 
nature from the dominating ideas of witchcraft which 
so thoroughly permeate the home life of the Bantus. 
These boys and girls can grasp the fact that deep plow- 
ing and fertilization will accomplish more in produc- 
ing good crops than sacrifices to unseen but malevo- 
lent spirits. They can be taught more readily than 
their elders that death is due to preventable disease 
and not to the plottings of an enemy as indicated by 
the crafty witch doctor. When the children have 
grown to manhood and womanhood it is also of the 
highest importance that they separate themselves from 
the dominance of the heathen chief and his witchcraft 
by establishing a new place of residence where God’s 
power through nature may have a chance to dominate 
their rural activities. 

Perhaps no portion of our field has made such advance 
in providing for the training of the native in agricul- 
ture and industry as the Rhodesia Branch of the South 


26 


African Mission. Here a magnificent primeval forest 
provides an abundant supply of the best timber not 
only for demonstration but for the actual construction 
of buildings both for the Mission and for the natives. 
It would be difficult to overstate the wonder of this 
forest. It seems to be a tiny remnant of some prim- 
eval growth which once covered the entire east coast. 
Now it is only about two square miles in extent, but 
it makes up in quality for what it lacks in area. I 
stood beside one straight red mahogany tree more than 
200 feet high. Above*the spread of its giant root but- 
tresses it measures over fifty feet around. Its perfect 
trunk reaches up 150 feet without a branch. Though 
this is the largest tree in the forest there are many 
hundreds of giants too large to handle with the simple 
machinery which has been installed at Mt. Silinda. 
Then there is the brown mahogany, said to be found 
nowhere else in the world. Its lasting qualities are 
marvelous. While at Mt. Silinda I found that a trunk 
which had lain in the forest for several years was being 
cut and inside was fresh and valuable lumber. 

Excellent clay has also been found at Mt. Silinda 
and the natives are not slow in learning to make brick 
and tile. Rolling country with an average fertility of 
soil provides a splendid training ground for the pupils 
of Mt. Silinda school in the cultivation of field and 
garden. So keenly have the natives recognized the 
relation between better farming and the possession of 
land in perpetuity that they have raised before the 
Mission urgently and repeatedly the question of 
whether they could not be permitted to purchase home- 
steads from the Mission, which owns in Southern 
Rhodesia about forty square miles of territory. The 
government is earnestly considering legislation which 
will give the native individual freehold without aggra- 
vating race jealousies. 


24 


‘yIOM oURqUIeYUT 941 JO pua SinqsouuRYyof sy], 
*JeIO-YOUM JO JUSUINIJsSUI peioes Jsou sIy ‘sauog jo Seq 3uljuasaid ‘polIaAuod 
ouyM Ul UPYT “(eUIeIJ Ul) SSseIppe pejeUIUINT]I YUM sssry “IPL SsuTjUesoIg 


uvy {0 pua ysvg ‘aurpy 27025 7D aaqZIWWMo') Y2INY puv 404SD 
Ade Fa Lary g CEB LIS hl S GOGGLE DEAL d 


« 


Ajquese1 ‘10}DOP YUM JIUTIOY 

















The Native Convert Trained to Be a 
Missionary 


The missionary, unlike other men, looks forward to 
“working himself out of a job.” In the Natal field 
much progress has been made towards transferring the 
burden of responsibility for the evangelization of the 
people to the shoulders of native pastors and evan- 
gelists. The church is well organized. Its annual 
church council takes seriously the burden of the whole 
field. The missionaries relate themselves to this native 
church with its evangelistic program as advisors rath- 
er than as administrative heads. 

Perhaps the most striking illustrations of the evan- 
gelistic zeal of the native church may be taken from 
West Africa. The founding of the Mission in 1880 
was followed by long years of slow progress. Up till 
twenty years ago there were but few church members 
and but little impression had been made upon the 
people as a whole. During the last twenty years, 
however, the church in. Angola has increased a thou- 
sand per cent. School attendance has had a similar 
record. The outstations have grown from thirty-two 
to over two hundred. And still the work goes for- 
ward. But the missionary personnel has hardly in- 
creased fifty per cent in the same period. The secret 
of this remarkable advance is in the deep sense of re- 
sponsibility for their brothers which has been aroused 
in the hearts of the Ovimbundu. In Chileso the na- 
tive church itself has passed a rule that no new mem- 
ber may be received except as he proves his spirit by 
bringing some other individual to Christ. Most un- 
promising candidates when faced with this test have 
responded by bringing whole families into the catech- 
umen class. In Sachikela, the station nearest the coast, 
I learned that every outstation is wholly self-support- 


20 


ing. It must build its own church and school, select 
its own young man to go to Dondi, where he works 
his way through the central training institute. When 
he returns he and his wife raise their own food though 
the village gives them some cloth with which to cover 
themselves. The preaching is done without remun- 
eration by the oldest Christian, or by some one elected 
by the group to serve as their elder. 

Each of our six older stations has an organized 
church of which the outstations are but branches. 
Bailundo is the oldest station and has the largest num- 
ber of branches. At stated intervals the church mem- 
bers from the eighty outstations gather at Bailundo 
for Communion. With them they bring their offer- 
ings. The actual cash value of these offerings for the 
spread of the Gospel amounts to about $700 a year for 
this one church. This gift means infinite sacrifice for 
these people who are living in nakedness and poverty. 
But the Gospel is everything to them. 

Not only the giving is theirs; the administration of 
the gift is also theirs, and it is interesting to hear how 
they portion out the fund so that it may accomplish 
the most in the spread of “the words.” At their last 
session before I left the Mission these elders of 
the church that is in Bailundo decided to send one of 
their members 250 miles away, down to the coast 
town of Lobito. This town, the terminus of the Trans- 
Angola railway, is situated on the most remarkable 
deep water harbor on the west coast of Africa and is 
destined to be a most important port. The Mission 
has long contemplated it as a possible location for a 
missionary, but the plan has never been fulfilled. Lo- 
bito had no service whatever, Catholic, Protestant or 
Moslem. Three weeks after they had sent down their 
man I had the privilege of going out with this mis- 
sionary of the Bailundo church to his service on the 


27 


sands, outside of the town. There, as has been stated, 
I found a congregation of a hundred. Many of them 
were Christians who had been converted elsewhere 
and were eagerly cooperating. Time did not permit 
me to go to the neighboring town of Catumbela where 
he had an even larger congregation. 

















Cali A 2ai/vado, 
umbela Dow ore 





ey Sachikelae 
eS road o 






| °Caconda 


* G2/ange 
o Nossamedes 


A somewhat similar evangelistic zeal was seen in 
Inhambane on the east coast of Africa where the 
American Board has not yet placed any missionary in 
residence. A large number of groups of Christians 
have established little villages of their own in this re- 
gion and claimed the American Board as their pro- 
tector and guide. Nearly every one of these villages 
has been started by a man who was converted upon 
the Rand in Johannesburg under the preaching of some 
representative of the American Board. Since his first 
upward yearnings came through the services con- 


28 











ducted by the missionary he builds a tiny church in his 
new village and calls his people together for morning 
and evening prayers. Each morning, before he and 
his people go to work in the gardens, they linger after 
prayers to learn their letters with the books which the 
“Mfundisi’” has sent them. When a pupil has learned 
his letters and can pick out words he or she joins the 
“class” which studies the New Testament. And after 
being in the “class” for six months or a year they are 
ready to be baptized. What this boy who has barely 
learned to read and count in the mine compound night 
school can teach to these people, however crude it may 
be, is an upward pull towards Christianity and civili- 
zation. Unfortunately the age-long tribe loyalty of the 
Bantu makes the young convert oftentimes more loyal 
to his denomination than to Christian principal. Thus 

















Dr. Bridgman and Pastor Likumbi Itinerating through Inhambane 


\ 29 


a considerable amount of denominational rivalry has 
been precipitated not only in Inhambane but in Johan- 
nesburg where so many individuals have received the 
light of the Gospel and from which they have carried 
it to all parts of South Africa. “Whether in pretense 
or in truth Christ is preached.” 

In all of the efforts towards self-sufficiency whether 
among the proud and able Zulus or among the faith- 
ful plodders of Inhambane these native groups need 
shepherding by the missionary. Such guidance is the 
more urgently needed in view of the large number of 
individual movements which claim a spiritual basis 
but which often find their propulsive power in jeal- 
ousies and factions rather than in a true spirit of love. 
Of these individual “Ethiopian movements” there are 
many in East Africa. 


Fields Yet Unoccupied 


Africa is a great continent and vast areas yet remain 
without any representative of the Gospel. The Ovim- 
bundu people are perhaps the finest of the Bantu group 
in Angola, but there are many tribes to the north and 
east and south of our American Board field as yet un- 
touched by the Gospel. In our West Africa Mission 
there is a close and practical cooperation between the 
missionary activities of the Canadian Congregation- 
alists, the Colored Churches of the South and the reg- 
ular forces of the American Board. Swiss, Portuguese 
and Dutch workers are also cooperating in this field. 
The contribution of the Canadians has been most 
important as the work has been brought to its present 
maturity. Chisamba, Kamundongo and Dondi have 
been their particular responsibilities. It is with no 
little eagerness that we look forward to their enlarg- 
ing capacity for service as the plan of church union 


30 


x 


in Canada matures. If the Canadian Missionary So- 
ciety which will doubtless develop from the uniting of 
the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational 
churches in Canada is able to put a larger force of 
workers into Angola they may reach some of these 
untouched tribes. . There will still be, however, many 
regions where no messenger has yet been sent, con- 
stituting a great opportunity for expansion of mission- 
ary-activities in West Africa. 

Our American negro churches working through the 
American Board with such missionaries as Henry C. 
McDowell and Samuel B. Coles have tapped a new 
field one hundred miles to the south of our older sta- 
tions, and have opened the station of Galangue. 
Graduates of Talladega supported by the churches and 
schools of the South are thus passing on to their 
brothers in Africa the Christian training which they 
received through our Home Missionary work. A 
splendid beginning has been made and it was a pleas- 
ure to meet an overflowing church full of eager listen- 
ers only eighteen months after the first bush was 
cleared. But our Southern churches have a great field 
yet to occupy around Galangue, especially to the west. 

What has been called the largest unoccupied field 
south of the Equator is that in Portuguese East Africa. 
The whole colony stretches for 1,300 miles along the 
coast of Africa opposite Madagascar. Its stretch of 
area would correspond roughly: with New England, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 
Its population, though only roughly estimated, is 
probably far less than that of Massachusetts. About 
250 miles of the southern end of it, Laurenco Marques 
and Inhambane, is fairly well occupied by missionary 
centers. The Universities’ Mission and the Scotch 
Presbyterians each have some work in the north. The 
Dutch Reformed Society had some missionaries in 


31 


Tete at the western extremity, but these were recently 
expelled by the authorities because they had not been 
willing to comply with the regulations of the govern- 
ment. Aside from this the whole province is entirely 
unoccupied. The central portion, and in many ways 
the most important section including the city of Beira, 
has long been recognized as the peculiar field of the 
American Board. Various attempts to occupy this 
field have been made in the past but have been for the 
most part unsuccessful because of the fact that our 
approach to the Portuguese authorities had been with- 
out sufficient sympathy and understanding. In West 
Africa, however, our missionaries have demonstrated 
that they are able to cooperate with the government 
in developing missionary work. No society has been 
more successful in this regard than the American 
Board. The Prudential Committee thought it best 
therefore to ask Mr. J. T. Tucker, one of the members 
of the West African Mission, to accompany me in a 
visit to Portuguese East Africa in order that we might 
there come to a better understanding with the Portu- 
guese officials and gain for the American Board their 
confidence in initiating a new task. It was the feeling 
of both Mr. Tucker and myself as we approached the 
authorities with this end in view that we were acting 
not simply for the American Board but for the whole 
evangelical Christian world. The securing of permis- 
sion to establish our missionary work in the territory 
of the Mozambique Company would facilitate the ef- 
forts made by all other societies who might seek to 
initiate similar activities in this unoccupied field. In 
our application made in writing to the Governor in 
the Mozambique Company’s territory there was no 
attempt to hide the fundamentally Christian purpose 
which we had in view. It was expressed in the fol- 
lowing language: “We consider the center of our activ- 


32 


ities Christian teaching. But we do not neglect pro- 
fessional training nor the teaching of reading and writ- 
ing in Portuguese, following the primary instruction.” 
After careful and friendly approaches the American 
Board was granted permission on September 9th for 
“the establishment of a religious mission.” 


EAST AFRICA 


FIELD OF THE 
AMERICAN BOARD 
Seale of English Statute Miles 

0 10 20 30 40 50 








tema’s GOGOIOe 
Southdown? 


’ | 


» pungdbera 





While plans have not yet been formulated for the 
opening of a new mission in Portuguese East Africa, 
such an enterprise would naturally link itself up with 
the beginnings already made in Gogoyo near the 


33 


Rhodesia border, and in Beira the chief port. Two 
other mission stations would be necessary and an ini- 


tial budget of perhaps $50,000 would be called for. A | 


further yearly expenditure of some $30,000 for salaries 
and expenses would undoubtedly follow. The regular 
resources of the Board can hardly meet this unusual 
call. The special appeal of the situation must reach 
some special donors. There may be some individual 
who, gaining a vision of the unparalleled opportunities, 
will make a splendid investment for the Kingdom, 
thus opening to the redemptive power of the all-round 
Gospel another of the unoccupied fields of the world. 

An element of urgency in initiating this new work 
in Portuguese East Africa is evident when we consider 
the progress of Mohammedans in the colony. A new 
influx of Mohammedanism has begun. There are no 
conquering armies, no evident missionary societies. 
It is conquest by infiltration. All through the Province 
Moslem traders are to be found.. One Indian comes 
into a district; he marries one, two or more native 
wives and the children come rapidly. In a few years 
the one man has developed into a Moslem community. 
These Moslem communities are increasing and 
mosques are now to be found in the coast cities. 

The heathen cannot remain in isolated ignorance. 
We have declared before the world for forty years that 
the responsibility for giving them the Gospel belonged, 
in that specific region, to the American Board. We 
now have permission from the government to go 


ahead. 


Who Has Failed? 


A vivid picture remains in my mind of my three 
days’ visit at Chileso, West Africa. The welcome 
which was accorded me as the auto drew up at the 


34 

















Crowd Welcoming Secretary Riggs at Chileso 


station was such as can never be forgotten. Men, 
women and children shouting, clapping and wildly 
waving branches of trees, pressed about me until I felt 
like a foot ball hero being carried from the field by his 
enthusiastic college mates. 

These people were enthusiastic because of their deep 
devotion to the Gospel and to the messengers who 
brought it. For many years the station had been piti- 
fully undermanned. At the time of my visit Mr. 
and Mrs. H. A. Neipp were on furlough, and Dr. Mary 
Cushman who had been on the field only two years and 
Mr. James Lloyd who was also new in Africa and was 
only temporarily substituting at Chileso, were carry- 
ing on the full-rounded activities of the station as best 
they could. . 

I met with the teachers of the outstation schools and 
heard from them some of the trials of their primitive 
life. One said that when he was called by the Portu- 
guese administrator to report on his work he had to 
borrow a pair of trousers, as he had none, in order 


35 


that he might make a fair impression as ‘an educated 
leader upon the Portuguese official. I met with the 
elders of the church and the heads of the Christian 
villages, a group of nearly forty men, and they told 
me of the great opportunity in the region of Chengue, 
and pleaded that a missionary might be sent for resi- 
dence in that region. They told of two hundred vil- 
lages close about Chengue open to the Gospel but with- 
out a single worker. I visited some of the thirty-five 
outstations where the people had decorated their 
churches with flowers and palm branches. Even the 
road leading to the church was strewn with great ba- 
nana leaves in honor of my approach. At one service 
each sentence as it was translated was clapped because 
of the appreciation of the people of a visit from a rep- 
resentative of the Board. A farewell meeting was sched- — 
uled for the last evening of my visit. The church was 
packed with these people, whose rule it was that no one 
could be admitted to church membership except as he 
had won someone else to Christ; these people whose 
giving would put the most generous church in America 
to shame; these people who had so long begged in 
vain for additional missionaries to give them courage 
and support as they themselves preached the Gospel 
to their neighbors. I confess that I was somewhat 
nervous as to what requests would be put forward for 
financial help or for new missionaries. After hymns 
had been sung in four parts with wonderful harmony 
and rhythm, and after earnest prayers had been offered 
up in the Umbundu which I could not understand, the 
leading elder came forward for his parting message. 
In his simple way he asked me to carry to the churches 
of America the greetings of the church in Chileso, and 
then with quiet and sincere humility he said “The 
American churches have not failed; the missionaries 
have not failed; but we have failed to do all that we 


36 


could. Your visit has encouraged us. We shall do 
better hereafter and we ask for your prayers.” There 
was nothing but the simplest sincerity in this parting 
message. ‘These native leaders had no other churches 
with which to compare themselves than the church of 
the first century whose records they found in their 
only book, the New Testament. 

As the naked Christian natives filed out into the 
dark with unfeigned happiness to go to their crude 
homes so lacking in the simplest necessities of life, I 
could not but think of audiences I had addressed in 
America who did not realize that they had failed. 








The Phelps-Stokes Education Commission in Africa 


Left to right: Drs. Aggrey, Jones and Loram; they are inspecting agricultural 


plots at Mt. Silinda. 


37 


= 





Institutions of the Africa Missions 


The Mission each belongs to follows name in parentheses; also 


the Board responsible for it in abbreviated form: A. B.C. F. M. 
for American Board; W. B.M. for Woman’s Board of Missions; 
W.B.M.1. for Woman’s Board of Missions of the Interior; C.C. 


C. for Canadian Congregational Church. 


Adams: Amanzimtoti Institute (Zulu) A. B. C. F. M. 


Bailundo: Boarding eer GVWWestsAirica aA Ba Ge He 
M. and W. B. M. 


Chikore: Boarding Seay URnodesia)) Aw ba. Gach om: 
and W. B. M. 


Chikore: Dispensary (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 
Chisamba: Boarding Schools (West Africa) C. C. C. 
Chisamba: Hospital (West Africa) C. C. C. 


Day Schools. Three hundred and eighty-three primary 
schools. 


Dondi: Currie Institute (West Africa) C. C. C. 

Dondi: Means Training School for Girls W.B. M. I. 
Gogoyo: Dispensary (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 

Inanda Seminary (Zulu) W. B. M. 

Kamundongo: Boarding Schools (West Africa) C. C. C. 


Kamundongo: Dispensary (West Africa) C. C. C. 


Mount Silinda: Training and Practicing School (Rhode- 
Sig bes. ee Mi band? Wo B.oM.. 1 


Mount Silinda: Hospital (Rhodesia) A. B. C. F. M. 
Ochileso: Boy’s Boarding School (West Africa) A. B. C. 
F. M. 


Ochileso: Dispensary (West Africa) A. B. C. F. M. 


Sachikela: Boarding Schools (West Africa) A. B. C. F. 
Mand WW. BOM. 1. 


Sachikela: Dispensary (West Africa) A. B. C. F. M. 


25, 


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| PHOTOMOUNT 


PAMPHLET BINDER 
PAT. NO. 
677188 


Manufactured by 

GAYLORD BROS. Inc. , 
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Stockton, Calif. 













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